Champions Of Tieden
by Arbiduck
Summary: As a Dark, mysterious force awakens, a sleeping god calls upon heroes, "Champions" from dozens of worlds, to come together to stop it, along with a duo who's lives were caught in the mix, and forever changed.
1. Chapter 1

"_Dreams are like stars. You may never reach them, or touch them. But if you follow them, they will ultimately take you to your destiny._"

Foreword

Let the Games Begin

_"For millennia, I have slept, waited, and bided my time. Drifting between universes, time, and space. I am many things, sometimes as a bringer of peace, happiness, love, and care. Other times as a harbinger of war, famine, chaos, death, and destruction. I have seen, heard, and told. If civilizations were swept away, I was the destroyer, if glorious victories were achieved, I was the true leader._

"_However - there are those 'chosen' by some luck of chance, perhaps by mine own kin, which work to no end to put a stop to my conquests. I have gone by many names, each one different from the last. Now, these 'Champions' will face their utter Judgment, and destruction. In their own times and places, they were labeled heroes, but, what will happen, when they are pitted against each other, will they choose salvation for their own world, or sacrifice millions for another? Will they be able to pass my tests? My trials? Only time shall tell, but, to put it in very common terms, 'let the games…begin….'"_

Chapter One

"Damn it . . . hurry up, Matt! The game starts in five! The food can wait, but the Pats won't!"

Alexander hurriedly ran up the stairs of his apartment, eagerly running to get to his TV. It was Super Bowl Sunday, after all. Not to mention, it was the Patriots versus the Giants, for the first time in a very, very long time. He quickly unlocked the door and jumped to the couch. After landing, he scrambled for the remote and flicked the TV on. _Good, _Alex thought, _the game's just about to start._ The overly talkative sports network hosts were finally shutting up so people could enjoy the game.

"Matt, really. Hurry the hell up, we can go back for the food at the commercials," Alex called out. He quickly realized he was on the fourth floor of his complex, shouting down three stairwells, and there were a ton of now very disgruntled sports fans.

"Okay, okay, I'm here. Don't worry about little old me," Matt replied as he barged in the door and sat down on the couch, punching Alex in the arm. Matt winced as his friend returned fire with his own jab.

The game was going well; the Patriots were up 35-27 by Halftime. It would be amazing if they could pull it off; it would be the first time since 2007 the Patriots almost got an almost perfect season. But if they won, it would be the perfect season. No football fan would miss this game.

"Come on, Matt! I don't care if Satch is playing the halftime show, now we can finally go get the grub from my car!" Alex stood up and headed for the door. Matt straggled out after, straining to hear the sweet sound of Joe Satriani hitting his guitar licks as they walked down the stairs and out of the complex.

As they walked across the parking lot, they realized things seemed to be moving slower, if you could say that. It was slowly getting quieter, despite the fact it was only around 6:30 PM. Not nearly late enough for there to be little to no noise outside, especially in a place like Jacksonville; it was, all in all, a really good day to be out.

"Uhh . . . Alex, does this seem a little, um, quiet, to you?" Matt asked as he jogged for a few steps to keep pace with Alex.

"Yeah, actually, it kinda does," Alex replied, arching an eyebrow. "Maybe a ton of people are watching the game? I dunno, let's just get that food!"

After offloading several bags of chips, six-packs of choice beverages, and some random groceries from the store, they began to make their way back to the apartment. Alex stopped suddenly and put down his bags of mostly unhealthy food, and turned back to the car, grabbing his keys from his pocket.

Matt stopped walking and turned around to see what was up, a quizzical look on his face. "What, you forget the Cheetos, or something?" he asked.

"Oh no, heh. I left my iPhone and camera in the Fiero, I'm just grabbing them quickly, 'kay?"

"Yeah, sure. Why would you need the camera, though? It's not like anything's gonna happen," Matt asked. "Can't it wait? My ears long to hear Satriani's magical chords running through them." He went to pick up one of Alex's bags, so Alex could carry his personal stuff.

"Okay, Matt. One, that's creepy as hell; two, this was a present and I would rather not have someone come walking by and decide to take my camera, or worse, my Fiero." He locked his car again, and put the keys in his pocket, along with his camera and iPhone.

"I swear to God, if this takes any longer, you're going to be the hood ornament of my Camaro!" Matt jokingly threatened as he walked back to the apartment, Alexander trailing a few meters behind. _Something must have been bugging him._ Matt thought to himself.

Matt quickly unpacked the food he had carried in on the table in front of the couch, and then halted what he was doing. The T.V had no audio. He turned and saw the picture was frozen. "Damn satellite!" Matt cursed, kicking the table beside him somewhat-jokingly. "Hey, Alex," he called to his friend who was walking in the door to their shared apartment, "your P.O.S satellite is broken. Fix it!"

"Aw, shit, really?" Alex replied, setting down his bags and going to see for himself. After inspecting the T.V for a few minutes, he realized it was, simply put, "fucked." Matt cried out in mock agony that he wouldn't be able to watch Satriani play the halftime show. He lay down on the couch, opening some chips.

"Well, let's just pig out or something," Alex offered, sitting in the armchair by the couch. "I heard it's a federal crime to not love Cheetos. New law put in recently. _Very_ strict."

Matt laughed and picked up a bag of them. "Yeah sure, why not," he muttered, popping the bag open.

After a few minutes, Alex looked up at Matt. He was out cold on the couch, Cheeto half eaten on his lip. He silently laughed to himself, and then went back to snacking. All of a sudden, however, Alex's strength started to . . . fade. He groggily attempted to say; "Matt, do you feel tired at all?"

Those were the last words he would ever speak on Earth for a very, very long time.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Matthew slowly woke from his sleep, shaking off his slumber over time. _No worries,_ he thought to himself calmly. _Alex is probably out or something, I can take time to nap. _That's why, when a small twig landed on his face, in the place where a Cheeto should have been, he woke with a start.

Spitting to get the twig off of him, he attempted to look around his surroundings. He was still in the living room; at least he thought he was. He then caught the glimmer of something; he could not make out what it was, so he motioned to get to his feet. He nearly jumped again when he felt grass beneath his hand and legs. Looking down, he noticed he wasn't even actually in the apartment; he was sitting on what appeared to be a sloped hill. Looking around frantically, he saw Alexander passed out about 10 feet away from him, hugging a rock like one would hug a pillow.

He stood and began to stretch his muscles, a routine he always did when he was anxious or tired. At this point, he was very much so the former, and was attempting to shake off the latter. Taking a new look around, he saw that the hill was in the middle of a large field, and about 170 meters west, there was what looked to be an old, abandoned, yet undoubtedly massive Mayan-Esque temple.

"How the hell?" he said aloud. "I must be dreaming, must be. There is no way I fell asleep, and woke up in Mexico. Not possible. Completely impossible." His senses were back now, and he walked over to his friend, who was still hugging and drooling on the rock like a baby.

He gave Alex a good shove, but it didn't work. He then slowly began to unhinge Alexander from the rock. Thankfully it worked, but not without Alex waking up in shock and kicking at Matt for a while. The fact that they were apparently in Mexico didn't help matters much.

"Okay, Matt . . . So, you're saying we just magically woke up in Mexico or someplace?" Alex cried out, kicking the rock that was his former sleeping-buddy. "I don't believe this, at all. What do we do, man!"

"Firstly, maybe, secondly . . . I don't know. Want to head into those ruins over there? Maybe somebody's there, who knows?" Matt replied, already walking towards the ruin.

"All right . . . but if we die, I want you to know, I never liked any of your ideas," Alex called, keeping pace with his friend.

The clouds in the sky had started to move in, blanketing the hill with shade, threatening to precipitate. Matt and Alex both noticed this, and quickened their pace. This was a foolish move, however, as there were rocks everywhere on the hill. Matt tripped on a small stone and tumbled down, cursing along the way.

He eventually came to a halt, as the slope had ended, the ground leveling out. Matt groaned and raised his dirt-covered head, squinting to keep it out of his eyes. Alex just strolled past, a wry grin on his face.

"Ugh, every time," Matt sputtered, clambering to his feet. "Every _single _time. You always come out without a spot on you, and something always happens to me."

Alex just chuckled, shaking his head. "You gotta be more observant. Know your surroundings and all that."

Matt just smiled. _Three . . . two . . . one . . ._

Mid-laugh, Alex walked right into an oak tree. He fell over, landing with a _thump_. He didn't say anything, just laid there, speechless.

"The irony is so delicious, isn't it?" Matt asked, offering a hand, which Alex reluctantly accepted. The two exchanged glares and continued towards the ruins, the first raindrops already starting to fall.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Lightning was a few things. Firstly, she was confused; secondly, she was frustrated, and third, she was frustrated because she was confused.

She sat up and leapt from her perch to the top of a rather large boulder, gently landing from the drop. She began to again think about how she got to where she was, wherever she was, in the first place.

Running through her brain again trying to sort things out, there was always a blank space. She knew where she was from, and remembered everything about it, but she had no memory of exactly where she was and what she was doing when she appeared here. The only image Lightning could conjure was her feeling amazingly tired, and then waking up on the "cliff" of sorts that she was on now. Again, her frustration was rising; so she rapidly pulled out her Gunblade and sliced the large boulder that she was just sitting on clean in half. She watched it slide apart and crash to the ground.

Deciding that sitting around and raging quietly to herself forever wouldn't be the answer, Lightning began to walk around the area, scouting for buildings, people, anything that may explain why she was there.

After a few minutes of general scouting, she realized she was, in fact, on, and above, the "roof" of a temple, or some other important building. She continued looking for a way inside from above, mostly to save time, she didn't want to have to climb down the cliff for no reason, after all.

_Well,_ she said to herself,_ someone had to have built this thing. _After a few more minutes, Lightning found a medium-sized hole in the ground, with a ladder leading down, supposedly into the temple. She dropped down the hole for a few feet then grabbed the ladder. It appeared sturdy, suitable for her weight. She sighed and continued her descent into the ruins.

Once Lightning's feet touched the rocky surface of the temple "floor," she released the ladder and stepped away from the hole. Rain had started to pour down, and within seconds, the wooden frame of the ladder was sopped with water. A few drops had landed on Lightning's hair, which she quickly addressed with a tousle.

She looked around, but didn't see much; the area was dark, and the only visible thing was the circular patch of stone beneath the crawl-hole. Lightning stepped forward, keeping her footsteps quiet, a precautionary hand on Blaze Edge.

The darkness was unsettling, and tempted Lightning to bring forth a bit of magical fire to light the way, but she decided against it. _There could be people in here, _she thought, _hostiles, even. Don't want to give myself away if so. _She just brought her raised left hand back to her side, and used the rainfall's sounds to "map the location."

From what she could gather, Lightning was in a wide open room, mostly everything inside of it made from stone. A close listen also revealed that there was nobody else in her presence. The lack of rustling or any other noise proved this. Relieved by this fact, she brought forth a ball of fire, which lit the room up halfway.

Lightning found a small chair-like stone alignment and sighed. _The rain will end soon, _she thought. _Best to just wait it out. _With this, Lightning moved her coat out of the way, and sat down, waiting patiently for the rain to end.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Alexander and Matthew began to increase their pace as they entered the temple. The rain was getting heavier, and neither of them wanted to be out in it. It was then that a stark possibility struck Alex.

"Yo. Um, Matt, what if there are . . . um, spiders? In here?" Alex cautiously asked, now making an effort not to go near low ceilings or touch walls."Why did we come in here!" he said aloud, "I forgot Mayans didn't mind spiders and all that creepy shit!" Alex began to cower slightly.

Matt just laughed to himself. "_What 20 year-old hides from spiders?"_ he said to himself.

After a few jokes about creepy crawlies that got Alex on edge, or possibly over said edge, he and Matt stopped hearing the rain. This meant it had stopped, or they were just so far underground or into the building that they just couldn't hear it anymore.

Matt stopped and looked around for a few seconds. Alex was warily watching the ceiling and wall around him for signs of any "Eight-Legged-Atrocities," as he called them. He jumped as he felt something swoop by his head quickly and hiss, but he kept his pace and walked, more sheepishly than ever, beside Matthew.

After about 15 minutes of walking, they came to a large, circular room, filled with what once must have been gold, and other ornate artifacts, but had somehow managed to rust. The room's layout was akin to many circles, each one growing smaller and smaller, and each level getting slightly higher up. But it wasn't much, maybe only a foot or so. From Alex's first look around, he estimated the room was about 100 feet across. The duo marveled at the massive area. There were also many doorways. The one they had came through was one of the lower ones, but the one to their right easily was 15 feet high and 10 feet wide, big enough for much more than a human to pass through.

"Oh, shit. This place is freaky enough, last thing wee need is another "you- know- what" coming in from that doorway," Alex stuttered, taking a step to the right of Matt, so that his buddy would be closer to the large doorway.

"Why the hell would there be a bug THAT big . . ." he motioned to the massive doorway, ". . . in here?" Matt continued his pace; they were about halfway to the center of the room now. "Hell, for all we know, we're just inside goddamn ruins in Mexico!" Matt exclaimed, throwing his hand in the air.

"Actually . . ." Alex said in an odd tone, ". . . this can't be Mexico. Some of these designs are rather . . . not Earthly," he said nervously, advancing through the hordes of broken artifacts, jewels, and similar museum-esque remnants.

"Which means . . .?" Matt purposely trailed off at this point, trying to make Alex go on with what he was saying. The pair was at the center of the room now, standing in front of an ornate pedestal-type object. It had two hand marks on it, as if one were to have put their hand in gold paint then touched the stand. Matt went to examine it while Alex stood back.

"It means; we are not even on Earth. Didn't you look up at the sky?" Alex asked and answered at the same time. "There were two suns, and like, 3 moons!" Alex exclaimed, pointing towards the "sky." Astronomy always was his thing; he tended to yell a lot when getting excited about it.

"Well, why didn't you freaking tell me?" Matt yelled, slamming his hand down on the pedestal, right on the left hand print. It was a perfect match, and it began glowing a faint gold color. Matt jumped back before Alex could react, and stepped away. It began unlocking like a complex mechanism. Alex stepped forward without a word, almost as if he was compelled to, and placed his right hand on the adjacent "pad." It began to glow a faint blue, and began unlocking. _Odd, _Alex thought to himself.

Just then, they heard an extremely sharp hiss emanating from the back of tunnel they were both avoiding in the room. "Oh, shit . . ." Alex said; backing up, and bumped into the pedestal they were both near. Turning to see his friend, he saw that Matt was pulling on a handle that had emerged from the locking mechanism. The room seemed to grow brighter as he did so.

Alex quickly tried to ignore the now loud, intimidating noises coming from the darkness, and put both his hands around the currently small handle that appeared. The room was then flooded with a mixture of gold and blue light and the rust on the artifacts seemed to disappear. The walls around them began to light up via small "veins" etched into them.

As they both pulled harder on the handles, they could see the locking mechanisms beginning to dissipate, almost into thin air. Alex could now see what appeared to be the hilt and lower blade of a long sword of sorts emerging from his side of the pedestal, and Matt viewed a smaller, but more curved blade appearing from his.

A few seconds after the lights seemed to "turn on," they heard immense roars erupt from deeper in the cave. The whole building began to shake violently. Rubble fell from the ceiling, and mountains of treasure fell and shattered to oblivion. Alex and Matthew were panicking now, both pulling on the swords with all their might. Finally, Matt managed to get his blade out. It was already in a sheath, the only thing visible being the rosewood handle. Matt hurriedly strapped it onto his back, without taking another look at it. Alex then removed his "sword from the stone" and also tied it to his back without a word. They both began to look around frantically, when finally, the source of this noise emerged from the tunnel.

A massive salamander of sorts emerged from the tunnel; it quickly looked around until it saw the source of it awakening, two small morsels of meat that had wandered into its cave. It then noticed that almost all of its treasure was annihilated. In rage, it let out a deafening roar. It flared its spine from its back and neck, and slammed the wall with its tail.

"Oh, shit . . . SHIT!" Matt cried as they saw the monster emerge from its lair. He and Alex immediately started running toward the nearest exit they could find. They were both silently praying to any being that would listen, to not make the way they were headed a dead end.

While running, Alex looked over his shoulder to see the beast losing ground on them. Though large, it didn't appear to be overly fast, so that gave them a slight edge against the thing. But, neither of them were exactly star athletes, either. They couldn't keep running forever.

A sharp corner came into sight, and Alex slid for a few seconds before making the turn. He cursed his choice of footwear. His runners, ironically enough, were terrible for running. Matt was having it easier, since he was wearing a pair of Nike sport shoes when they, somehow, were sent here.

He quickly shoved the thought out of his mind as he focused more on sprinting away from the monster, not dictating his choice of footwear. They finally saw an exit, a light at the end of a tunnel, while being chased by an 14 foot high salamander, as it were.

They were both severely short of breath by this point, but they kept on running; if they stopped, they were dead. Wheezing in the humid air, they made a beeline for the exit. Matt was out first, and he quickly jived to the right of the doorway, to get out of the creatures line of sight. Alex was out shortly afterward, stumbling out of the passage. Matt pulled him out of the doorway as the beast slid to a stop in the sunlight.

It was now no longer raining, the dual suns had broken through the clouds and scattered them, leaving only humid air and multiple rainbows in its stead. The two panting humans finally got a good look at the beast, as well. It was about fourteen feet tall at the "shoulders," and around nineteen feet end-to end. It had an orange "flail" around its neck, not unlike some desert lizards found on Earth, if Alex and Matt recalled correctly. It looked around for a while until it spotted them again. It released a low growl and began slowly pacing, each time getting closer to the pair.

"You, um . . . think it can see movement?" Alex asked sarcastically, standing ramrod stiff. Turning towards Matt, he spotted the confused look. He let out a sigh and explained the joke. "You know, like Jurassic Park, big lizard don't see movement, yadda yadd-"

"Oh, SHUT UP!" Matt yelled. "We're about to fucking die and all you can do is make a lame joke?" He grimaced at Alexander.

"Well, if we're going to die, might as well go laughing, right?" Alex asked, shrugging his shoulders.

The beast was still approaching; flicking its tongue now. Right now, it was probably thinking of the best way to eat them, alive or dead. It gave them a menacing stare. This was all it took for their self-defense instinct to kick in.

"Alex, you hang right, I'll run left, AROUND the thing. Let's see what these swords can do," Matt spoke, as he placed his hand on the handle of his blade, and got into a running stance. "How about, instead of going down laughing, we go down after giving old beastie hear a few good scars? Assuming that's even possible." Matt smiled at his friend.

"Sounds . . . like a plan," Alex chuckled, smiling back. He also placed his hand on the handle of his blade. He got into a running stance as well.

The "salamander" was now only about ten feet away. The two could smell its horrid breath. It seemed to penetrate to their very minds with its fumes. It licked its lips again, tongue flicking at Alex. The sharp organ cut his cheek, and drops of crimson blood began to slowly drip from it.

"Easy . . . okay . . . NOW!" Matt yelled, surging towards the beast. He quickly rolled to the left with instinct he didn't seem to have before. Alex mimicked this, but he also leapt about six feet off the ground backwards, landing next to where Matt got up from his dodge-roll. They both just stared at each other in awe of their newfound prowess, before drawing their weapons from their backs. Still not taking time to inspect them, they just held them like on would think to hold a sword. Matt was the exception, however, as he held his sword one-handed, with the blade pointing backwards; much like one would hold a police baton. They both backed up about 10 more feet, each one of them backing up in the opposite direction of the other.

The beast let out a massive roar in frustration. Its meal had decided to put up a fight, after all. It let out a jet of crimson flame from its nostrils and mouth; this caused the little creatures to back up some more.

"Did...It just . . ?" Alex trailed off again. He tightened his grip on his sword and looked over at Matt, who had done the same. They were just about to charge when they saw the creature look back up at the ruins, at a previously unnoticed overhanging ledge that was just above the creature. The sun happened to be directly above this. There was the sound of a gunshot, then the monster yelled in pain as it was struck by the round.

They looked up in time just long enough to see a flash of pink leap down from the rooftop, shining blade drawn.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Salamander quickly shot out a ball of flame at the new target; but the figure deftly dodged to the side, fired another round at the beast, and then landed between Alex, Matthew, and the beast itself.

Alex instinctively raised his blade when the person landed. But he still could not get a good look at it , for right after it landed; the "Pink Flare" was running at the beast faster than he could track. He heard the beast cry out in agony as its right foreleg was sliced by a blade. It turned quickly and struck the "Flare" with its tail. The pink blur flew backwards and came to a stop just behind and between Alex and Matt; they turned to see just exactly who it was. Needless to say, they were surprised.

The "Pink Flare" was actually a human female, about the same height as Alex. Radiant bubble-gum pink hair flowed from her head, and stopped at the collar of the white coat she was wearing. Beneath the hair that was covering her face, resided two sapphire eyes, which were staring daggers into the gawking males' own eyes.

Suddenly, she spoke to them. "Well, are you two going to stare, or are you going to help me?" She looked over at Matt, then Alex, a frustrated look in her eyes. She pointed at the beast with her sword, which stood out the most to Matt and Alex. It had a polished chrome frame, with black and red details. There was also an inscription, but neither of them could read it.

"Um…right!" Alex said, spinning his blade in his hand. He looked over to Matthew. "Ready?" he asked. Matt just nodded, bringing his blade to bear. Looking over at the woman, he said, "Alright, what do we do?"

Thinking for a moment, she calmly replied, "Alright, you with the blade like mine." She looked at the sword in Alex's hand. "You keep it distracted while I get a good angle. And you . . ." she started, glancing at Matt. ". . . Matt, was it? Try and hit it when it's distracted." She looked again at both of them for reassurance that they would go along with her plan.

"Alright. Let's do this," Alex said, and nodded at the woman beside him. They were both off running at the beast immediately. The lizard swung its tail at them again, the woman jumped over it and did a somersault to the ground, while Alex slid underneath it and rolled back into his run. "You go around!" she called out. After ducking another swing from the beast, he looked just in time to see her vanish into the rocks above them.

Alex sidestepped to avoid a bite from the lizard, then hit it the side of the head with the hilt of his blade. He rolled away from a jet of fire, and then leaped above and over it; he was sliding to a stop, but tripped up on the landing and rolled to the ground. Dazed, but awake.

The lizard made its move while Alex was getting up; it opened its mouth in preparation to sear its meal with flame. Just as it breathed in air to fuel its fire, a large gunshot sounded. The creature screamed and let out a roar of pain.

Matt was standing, sword in hand, between the monster and Alex, but his gun had changed form almost, and it was now in the shape of a large revolver-like handgun. Smoke was still exiting the barrel when Matt flicked what seemed to Alex to be a switch on the side of it, and it re-formed back into the short sword. Matt caught it in his now-standard grip for the weapon. He quickly ran to Alex and helped him up.

"How...how did you manage that?" Alex asked as he stood back up and picked up his blade from the ground. He now noticed the blade was a faint blue color, while the hilt was a dark matte gray and black, and the handle was gray and a light tan mixed together. He also then saw that his gun appeared to be transformable, but he sensed the beast was getting back up, so he just spun it on his fingers again, as it was becoming a habit, and prepared to attack the Salamander.

They both ran in parallel paths around the beast, Matt going left and Alex going right. They jumped over to the opposite sides, slashing at the beast's back as it attempted to dodge. Alex jumped a swipe by the beast's tail, and took at slice at it while in midair. The beast howled again and quickly turned, it released a jet of fire at Matt, who jumped over it but was sent sprawling due to the overpressure of the small explosion. After Alex landed, he turned to face the beast, only to be rammed by it. Alex easily flew a few dozen feet backwards and slid to a stop on his back. Dazed, he looked around. Matt was staggering to his feet to his left. Alex was still dizzy.

The Salamander slammed Matt back down with its tail. Blood came up from his mouth, as if he had spit up water after a pool incident. The beast was now approaching Alex, a despicable grin on its face. It once again began to breathe in air when it suddenly looked to the right. Alex also turned to see what the Salamander had seen.

Standing to the right of the beast, _she_ stood; her sword-turned-handgun aimed directly at the beast's face. She fired without blinking. The beast cried out as the first round impacted the side of its head; but she continued firing as she walked towards it. The rounds mostly hit its right flank, and seemed to explode on impact, increasing their effectiveness. Once the implied magazine was empty, the woman slammed a switch on the side of it, and it turned back in its sword form. Leaping over a desperate swing by the beast, she landed on its back, grabbing onto the single spiked spine that ran down its length.

Plunging her blade down, the monster cried far more sheepishly than it had before, but it was now a wounded creature, and nothing is a vicious as an injured animal. _Except for her, maybe,_ Alex said to himself. She ran up its length to its neck and stabbed again into it. The salamander was now thrashing about in its death throes. She drew the blade out; it was now covered in shining crimson. She held the blade away from her, so she would not get any on her clothing, it seemed. Leaping off of the lizard's back, the woman landed just in front of Alex.

She again transformed her weapon into its gun form, walking up to the beast that was now lying on the ground; she looked away and fired one final round into its forehead.

She closed her eyes for a second, and then turned to help Alexander up. She extended her hand, but he waved her off, pointing to Matthew. She looked over at his friend and nodded silently. He needed more help than Alex right now. Alex stood and walked over to his weapon that was lying on the ground; he picked it up and slid it back into its sheath on his back. He ran over to his friend and kneeled down beside him, the woman on the other side of him. He looked up at her. She nodded; he was going to be okay. He was just a bit dizzy.

"Wakey wakey, sleeping beauty," Alex said as he helped Matt to his feet. Matt let out a coarse laugh then coughed a bit. Aside from a few bruises he was fine. That was good; the last thing anyone wanted in a place like this was a dying, or dead friend.

Alex looked up at the girl and smiled. Extending his hand, he said, "Thanks, we'd have been dead without you. You can call me Alexander, or Alex, and he's named-" Matt cut him off as he stood up from his sitting position. "Hey, I'm Matthew, call me Matt." Alex extended his hand to her again, and they shook. Then Matt shook hands with her, as well.

She then spoke for the first _real_ time.

"Call me...Lightning."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"So, um...what's next?" Matt asked the two others standing with him. After what had occurred, they really had no clue what to do now. "I mean, we could go look around, see if there is anyone else here, or from here I mean." He picked up his sword from the ground and placed it back in its sheath on his back.

"Sounds good, Matt," Alex replied, he was uncertain, too."Is that alright with, you, um, Lightning, was it?" He looked over at her; she was standing off to the side a bit now, arms crossed, with her eyes closed, lost in thought. She looked up at him and into his eyes with her bright, sapphire eyes. Suddenly, a look of confusion and what seemed a bit like anger crossed her face. She looked at both of them as she spoke.

"Wait, neither of you are from here? Wherever this is?" She asked, frustrated. "You sounded like you recognized the architecture when you were inside!" She glared at both of them accusingly.

"Wait, what?" Matt said. "How would you have known what we were talking about before big ugly here showed up?" He motioned towards the corpse of the beast. "And we do recognize the building; it looks like it's directly from one of the ones that are on our...world? But were definitely not at our world, no. The sky looks nothing the same." He gestured upwards, at the two enormous moons in the sky, and the orange and blue suns that were almost directly overhead.

"Oh, well that's _wonderful_, just my luck!" she yelled at herself and the world around her. "Well then yes, let's look around for a way up these rocks. I'd rather not cut through the ruins again. I got a spider and almost got some cobwebs in my hair last time." With that she was walking towards the cliffs that were about 70 meters to the west, just past the salamander's corpse.

Matt looked over at Alex and shrugged his shoulders. Alex began to pat himself down looking for spiders and cobwebs. Matt just laughed and followed her. After Alex caught up, Matt asked him, in a hushed tone. "Speaking of her hair….You think she's a natural pink, I mean, it's not possible to have pink hair on earth, right?"

Alex chuckled. "I think it's obvious she's not from _our_ Earth at least." He continued walking towards the extremely steep and rocky slope. "Then again," Matt replied to Alex, "You could always ask her, there is _one way _of knowing someone's real hair color." Matt chuckled again and was off. After thinking about it for a second, Alex responded with a jeer and continued to the rock face. In the back of his mind, he was thinking,_ I feel sorry for the poor sap that asks that question!_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Alex leapt up at the rock wall again, this time successfully grabbing hold of the first open spot, using his legs to propel him upward, but when he reached the next step, he cut his hand again on the jagged edges. Massaging his cut up hands, he looked up at Lightning, who was sitting comfortably on a boulder on top of the wall.

"How...how did you manage to get up there so quick..?" he coughed out. This was getting exhausting. At least Matt was having better luck. Alex looked over at his friend who was about to make it to the top, but slipped and fell back 20 feet, onto his rear. Matt stood up and looked frustrated. He leaped again, only to be thwarted by missing a handgrip in the wall.

Lightning began to smile while watching them try to climb, she even let out a slight smirk when Matt's latest attempt to scale failed. She stood up and leaned over the edge, looking down at them. She yelled down a piece of advice. "Look before you jump, that's important. Also, look into a pair of gloves; they stop you from getting cut up." She sat down on the edge. Watching these two scramble amused her. "Want me to show you how it's done?" she called down. They both nodded sheepishly. She sighed and jumped straight off the rock face; she drew Blaze Edge and dug it into the wall mid-fall. This slowed her down to the point where she could leap off safely.

"Okay," she said. "watch me, carefully." She leapt up a few feet and caught her left foot in a small "cubby." She then lifted her right arm up and grabbed another handhold. Her concentration slipped up and she fell back down to the ground. Alex extended his hand to help her up; she took it and then dusted her clothing off. "Okay," she said, "maybe it's not as easy as I said it was." Matt and Alex gave each other a sarcastic smile, and then laughed silently to themselves at her.

"You know," she said, "with the moves you two were pulling twenty minutes ago, I'd say you would be able to climb this thing no problem." She examined the two; they certainly didn't look like fighters, and they also seemed amazingly out of element. After thinking on it for a moment, she spoke. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you two have never held real swords or gunblades in your life?"

They nodded. Alex then replied, "That's what this thing is called? A…'gunblade?' I figured it was a fancy sword or something." He unsheathed it and held it out in front of him, almost stabbing Lightning in the gut at the same time. She hopped around it and took a step towards him, hand on Blaze Edge's hilt, which was sheathed in its case behind her waist. She gave him a stern stare, until he apologized. "Oh, um, sorry. I'm not used to holding swords," he said. She placed her hand on the hilt and pulled it from his grip.

"I can tell," she agreed, as she walked a few feet away with it in her hand, and then sat down on a rather large rock. Alex and Matthew followed, each finding their own makeshift seat.

"You found these in the temple, right?" Lightning inquired.

Alex nodded. "Yep. And right after we-er, I picked it up, well, I can't speak for Matt, but I suddenly felt "stronger", I'm assuming that's how I was able to fight that thing." He looked to Matt, who was sitting to his left, running his hand over his gunblade's handle. Matt nodded in agreement.

"Well, makes sense," Lightning responded. "You don't look like fighters, not in the slightest." She placed Alex's blade across her lap, one hand on the hilt, as she ran her left hand down the side of the blade. "This is…interesting. I've never seen this material before, whatever it is. This blade looks like it was made just for you, as well, with its length and balance. It's too hilt-heavy for my taste, but we have different styles. That much is apparent, just by watching you fight."

"Think so?" Alex leaned forwards, this was interesting him now. Matt also perked up and was following, but he had just lain down on a clear patch of dirt, he was getting tired. "I never thought of that…oh, there is an inscription or something written on the blade. Can you read it? I can't see it from here."

Lightning nodded and flipped the blade over. Sure enough, there was some writing somewhat near the hilt. Along with a strange little symbol. It was only about the size of the end of two thumbs placed together, but it had an odd shape. It was a small, orange dot placed within a silver swirl, and outside of that was the shape of a Grey gear, like what you would see in a clock. She sounded out the letters. "It says…_Solis Apparatus_, I think." She handed the blade carefully back to Alex. He noticed her struggle slightly to lift the blade with one arm. She must have been right; it was pretty much balanced for him.

"Huh, you're right; it does say _Solis Apparatus_ on it. I think that means 'Sun Gear' in Latin." He inspected the blade closely now. It was about four feet long, end of the hilt to blade tip. The handle of the hilt had a mix of gray and tan metal; it swirled in random patterns along the length. The handle was also slightly curved. He moved his hand up. There was a small trigger guard, with a trigger, and a "slot" where he could, theoretically, place his hand while his weapon was in gun-form. The handguard was a deep matte gray, with ornate details inlaid upon it.

The blade itself was a slight shade of blue. He inspected the small symbol on it; touching it with one of his fingers. He pulled his hand back instantly; the cold steel irritated his cut hand. A small drop of blood ran down and onto the blade. It then began to glow slightly. Lightning looked at it cautiously, and Alex suddenly felt a great source of energy from the blade. He noticed the small symbol lit up, then went back to its slightly dull appearance. Alex looked up at Lightning, his look asking for an explanation. She just shook her head.

"If anything, I'd guess your blade just "bound" to you. Became 100% yours in a way, if it's even possible. Let's test it and see if anything is different." She stood up and walked a few feet until there was a large amount of flat earth around her. Alex followed, "Sun-Gear" in hand. They walked for a bit more, until Lightning was certain Matt was a safe distance away. She looked over at this "Alex" person. He was interesting, for sure. He had no idea what kind of power that blade could hold. If she was right, it easily had enormous potential.

"So, um, how are we going to test this, exactly?" Alex spun his sword again. It was becoming a bad habit, now. "Lightning, you listening?" He looked over at her, but she was gone. He heard her, seemingly very close but far at the same time, if that made sense. "Block!"

Alex raised his sword and spun in the nick of time, and Blaze-Edge and Sun-Gear clashed together, sparks flying in all directions. He shoved back with his blade, but she was gone again.

This time he was ready, he raised his blade in a defensive posture, scanning the area around him. He sighted a small shadow, slowly getting bigger, but he rolled backwards in time to see Lightning crash down, sword first, into a new cloud of dust that now enveloped both of them. "What's the big idea!" Alex called out. "You going to try and eat me now, too?" He turned and parried another strike from her, ducking under a backhanded swing and locking blades again. She leaned in close to his ear and whispered "Not quite…"

He could have sworn she cracked a smile as she said it.

He dodged another strike, and then quickly blocked a flurry of stabbing thrust from her. He swung back and caught her while she was switching arms with the sword. He overpowered her fast, knocking Blaze Edge away. She dropped her sword, which Alex didn't expect, as he stumbled away. She then ran over to him and punched him in the gut, then tripped him onto his face. He turned to get up, when he felt cold metal touch the back of his neck. He froze up. Was she going to kill him?

The sensation left him, as he heard the sound of a weapon being holstered. She walked around him and extended an arm. He took it and stood back up, looking at her seriously. "What was that! Are you trying to kill me!" He scooped up his gunblade and placed it in its sheath. She poked him hard in the chest. "No," she said, "I wasn't trying to kill you; I was…testing your potential. And, at the least, you won't be entirely useless ." She stared at him again with those bright, blue eyes. He suddenly felt light inside. he broke eye contact before she did. he was getting unnerved by her, oddly enough. then again, he couldn't recall the last time he had seen a girl take town a giant fire-breathing lizard, either.

She coughed, then went on. "As I was saying, you're an amazing swordsman for someone who started just a few minutes. Keep up the practice. Also, that blade is special; I can tell already, keep it handy."

"Uh, thanks," Alex responded. "I appreciate it, I think." He walked beside her. They both forgot Matt was napping at the "camp" of sorts. They walked silently around the area for a while. Lightning stopped and looked up at Alex. "You mentioned the words on your sword were "Latin." What's that?"

The question caught Alexander off guard; he forgot that Latin was a language from his planet. "Oh," he answered, "I forgot Latin was an Earth-exclusive language, sorry. Latin is basically the "Root Language" for most speech on my planet, nobody really speaks it much, but most of the words in English come from it, at least on my world, I think. "Solis Apparatus" means "Sun-Gear", which I guess is my sword's name."

Lightning nodded in understanding. "You think we should go get Matt?" she asked. Alex looked confused, and then caught on. "Yeah, I guess we should. Let's go."

The two turned towards the "camp" and started walking, puffs of dust forming underneath their shoes. Alex had a slight grin on his face due to the awkward moment earlier, but extinguished it when Lightning glanced at him. He brought it back when she turned away, this pattern continued for a while until they reached the camp.

Matt was standing there looking around frantically, sword in hand. He glanced behind him and saw Alex and Lightning approaching, he ran over to them. "Oh, MAN. Why would you two ditch me! For Christ's sake, there could have been more of...those!" He pointed towards the corpse of the lizard. Strangely enough, it was beginning to simply disappear.

"Relax, Matt, we didn't go anywhere, we were just taking a walk while you were napping. We're back now." Matt simply nodded and sat back down on his rock. The others sat down as well. They were all thinking on what to do next, should they scale the rock wall? Find a way out of this pass? Lightning perked up quickly looking around in all directions. Matt looked up and saw what she saw.

A large helicopter, what looked to be an army-grade "Chinook", or something similar, was descending near them. It was rapidly coming in for a landing, not more than 30 feet off.

All three stood, each of them placing an anxious hand on the hilt of their weapon. Lightning was standing back slightly behind Alex. She clearly had no clue what this thing was. "Matt," Alex said, "this is something from our world. You think somebody else got sent here, or they are coming to get people-us

?" Matt shook his head. "No, I don't think so," he replied. "This Chinook is coming in fast and hard. I'd say they aren't happy we're here. Or they are really happy to see us. We'll see in a moment."

Alex lifted his arm in front of his eyes. The helicopter blades were kicking up a lot of dust. Matt and Lightning did the same, but Lightning took a hand off Blaze Edge's hilt and put her other arm on her hair to stop it from messing. Alex was glad the helicopter was making a racket, as he actually laughed at that for a little while. She obviously heard him, as she looked at him and was staring daggers into him. He quickly stopped his laugh and went back to the helicopter.

The Chinook touched down, and the back ramp opened, facing the trio. Seven men, all dressed in black and white combat gear armor stepped out. They quickly looked around then made a circle around a man. He was tall, and looked to be in his fifties or sixties. He wore standard U.S Army clothing, and his Beret and badge identified his as a General. He had a .44 magnum holstered underneath his arm.

The two guards around him stood apart, and the General approached the three of them. Matt whispered to Alex and Lightning, "They are from our world, Alex, but I've never heard or seen of these guys. All that equipment, specialized machine guns, fifty caliber snipers? Far too expensive for a normal military, I'd say special ops. Hell, even that body armor is like nothing I've ever seen." Lightning and Alex nodded. Alex stepped forward, along with Lightning and Matt behind him, as the General approached. He had a sort of pressure around him, like he demanded respect. And just by how he looked, Matt could tell he was American, and arrogant.

"You three, come over here, I need to speak with you." His voice sounded cold yet powerful, and calm, far calmer then his men looked. Through their clear goggles, Matt could see they were somewhat shifty. "Now," he said, "how did you get here, why are you here, who are you, and what are those weapons you have?"

Matt stepped ahead of Alex to speak to the general. "Well, um, general…"

The man interrupted Matt's speech. "Shepherd, my name is General Shepherd."

"Right," Matt said. "We don't know how we got here; we just sort of...woke up here. We don't know why, either, um, sir?"

Shepherd nodded in understanding. He looked the three of them over. The two males looked normal enough, aside from assorted cuts, bruises, and such, and from their weapons. He then noticed the girl, which was standing a small ways behind the one with longer brown hair. He focused on her just long enough for her to look away from him. She was…Different. Bubble-gum pink hair, bright blue eyes, and she was taller than the average woman, standing at 5 foot 9. Her clothing was odd, as well. She wore boots that almost went to her knees, a somewhat short green skirt, and white coat with a brown sweater underneath it. She also had a red "cape" of sorts flowing down from her right shoulder, and what looked like a type of shoulder armor on her left arm. She gave him a cold look; so he went back to the conversation.

"I see…" he said. "Where are you from, then?" He was speaking mainly to the two males, as they seemed to know more of what was going on.

"Well," the one with the light beard answered. "We were both, um, me and Alex, here. Were born in Canada, we moved down to Florida to go to school." Shepherd nodded along. He looked towards the girl. "What about you, girl? Where are you from?"

She stepped forward until she was beside Matthew and Alex. "You can call me Lightning. Where I'm from doesn't matter, just know it's certainly not where your guys are from. To answer your earlier question about our weapons, they are called "Gunblades." Swords that can change into guns when needed. Anything else?" She crossed her arms and tilted her head at him, a somewhat mocking expression on her face. Shepherd didn't like her already. She was challenging him, and his leadership.

He then addressed her directly. "I am General Shepherd of the Army of the United States of America, and being so, I demand respect, from these two, and from you!" he yelled. Lightning scoffed and responded, "And I'm not from "Earth". This means, I don't have to listen to some old man with a superiority complex. Hell, I don't even know what a "United States of America" is!"

General Shepherd now looked almost comically angry. Alex noticed he had a vein popping out on his forehead. He spoke again, keeping his voice in check. "For one last time….if I demand respect, it is given! As a general in the United Sta-"

Lightning butted in; "For the last time, 'General Shepherd,' I really don't care what your rank is. And I don't even know why I should respect this 'United States' you speak of; they seem like a bunch of pricks to me."

Shepherd lost it. He swung his fist at Lightning, and she easily grabbed it in mid swing, and tripped him onto his back. As soon as she did this, his guards all raised their weapons and moved back a few feet. Shepherd got up and walked back into the helicopter, rubbing the back of his head. He said, just before the hatch closed, "Shadow Company; show this bitch and her friends what happens when you mess with us!" He walked back into the hold of the Chinook, and the guards he had left behind all looked focused. Suddenly, four men in large Bomb Squad suits came out from the other side of the helicopter. Their only marking was a large sign that read "J.U.G.S" across the front.

Lightning drew her blade, along with Alex and Matthew. The enemies circled in, and the three all went Back-to-back-to-back, each one facing another direction. Lightning spoke then; "Matt, you seem to know your own weaponry well, what are they using?" She tightened her grip on Blaze Edge, she didn't know what to expect from "Earth" weaponry. Matt replied, "Mostly specialized sub-machine guns, looks like UMP's with EOTech red dot sights. As far as those, err, Juggernauts go, look like some heavy duty armor and light machine guns. Basically, they shoot fast, and are deadly accurate." Matt switched his stance to his backhanded one; he liked how easy it was to maneuver like this.

One of the guards spoke. "Under General Shepherd's orders, I hereby order you to submit to questioning and interrogation, if you refuse, you will be taken by force. You have three seconds to comply. Three…."

Alex and Matt looked to Lightning, she simply grinned. She wanted to fight them. "Two….." The guard motioned with his fingers, and he held up a single finger.

"One."

Lightning looked straight up and at him; she whispered, "Fuck off…" and leapt forwards faster than any of the guards could react. The guard quickly backpedaled firing, Lightning dodged to the right, and then plunged her sword through his chest.

Alex and Matt both dodged in opposite direction, as bullets then began to spray everywhere after that. Matt quickly grabbed a guard and twisted his neck until he heard a pop; his new strength made him easily a match for any normal human. Alex rolled underneath one of the guard's lines of fire and then cut upwards. The man fell, in two parts, to the ground. Alex jumped up, and quickly moved as to not be shot. All three went back to their formation again.

This time, the Juggernauts brought their LMGs to bear, spraying at them. Alex winced, as he thought it was over. He opened his eyes to see them enveloped in a translucent, green shield, which was being emitted by Lightning's hands. Bullets began pinging off of the shield, hitting the troops that were not wearing "J.U.G.S" suits. Lightning screamed ,"Goddamnit! I can't hold this shield forever! Move, you two!" Alex and Matt obliged, they each ran at a Juggernaut. Lightning dissipated the shield then went to battle the other two Juggernauts. Instead of reloading, the Juggernauts simply began to use their machine guns as maces.

Alex ducked behind his foe, and chuckled as he noticed the words "kick me" scrawled on the Juggernaut's butt plate. Then he took a slash at his foe's back, his blade barely managing to cut through the armor. Apparently, their armor got a boost since coming here. He jumped over a low kick by his enemy, then brought his sword down again, this time it pierced the armor and he drew blood from his enemy's arm, but just by a gash. Alex quickly swung and kicked the enemy in the side of the head while he was recoiling from his wound, successfully knocking him onto his back. Alex tried not to look into the man's eyes as he plunged his blade through his chest armor and into the ground below. He drew out Sun-Gear and looked around the battlefield. Matt was peppering his foe with light slashes from his blade, trying to taunt him, while Lightning simply was getting them to hit each other with her speed. Alex ran over to where Matt was fighting and slide-tackled the Juggernaut, but he missed and slid too far. As he got up, he saw Matt quickly finish off the distracted Juggernaut by ramming his blade through its throat.

Looking to their right, they witnessed Lightning hit one of them with a fireball and the other with a slice across the front of his neck. She holstered Blaze Edge and walked over to the two of them. "Good job, guys," she said. "Let's go before they come back-"

Just as she said that, the Chinook returned, its back hatch open, General Shepherd standing in the doorway. He had a look of terror and rage on his face; he obviously saw his slaughtered troops lying around the three. He reached for a radio and held up the middle finger as the door closed again, his Chinook moving back a distance.

Another helicopter hovered overhead; this one had a large array of weapons onboard it. All it took for them to run was Matt to scream "Apache!" The three turned and ran towards them temple at top speed, avoiding rounds from its machine gun. As soon as they were near the doorway, Matt watched it release a missile, he screamed for his allies to speed up inside the temple, and they did. Diving as they leaped in the doorway, rubble fell all around them, and the world went black once again.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Everything was a blur to Alex. He looked around, but all he could see was darkness. Blood dripped into his eyes, and he made a motion to try and wipe away the blood, when he realized his hearing was gone. He rolled over onto his back and laid in the dark, taking deep breaths of air. Apparently, he wasn't dead, or dead yet. He had no idea how much damage that Apache had done. Attempting to wipe the blood off of his face, he then noticed his hearing was returning. That was good, he wasn't deaf. As soon as he let his hands fall back on the ground, he heard movement, and his vision began to come back.

Lightning was leaning against the wall, a few feet away. She looked down at him, a surprised look on her face, and she quickly walked over to Alex and kneeled down beside him.

She addressed him. "Are you alright? The 'Ap-Ashee' almost got us. Some rubble hit you when we got inside, and knocked you out. Good thing you're alive, though." She half-smiled and helped him to his feet. He went to lean against the wall, he felt like boulders were being smashed inside his head. They probably were.

He coughed up some blood, took a deep breath, and looked around. He didn't see Matt anywhere. He walked around a bit, and stretched his muscles. Apparently, almost getting crushed by a ton of rubble…hurts. Lightning spoke to him, "Matt went up ahead, through the roof of the ruins. We're supposed to follow him, now that you're awake." She pointed towards a collection of support beams that went directly up and through the superstructure of the building. Alex walked over to it and leaped up onto them. He was eager to finally get out of here.

"You owe me one, by the way," she said as she pulled herself onto the beams after him. He extended a hand to help her up.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Alex replied. "I'm just distracted, I do owe you one, I guess."

"We'll be able to see more when we reach the top, so let's go." Lightning said, and leapt over a small chasm to a ladder. She began climbing, and then motioned for Alex to follow.

"This reminds me," Alex said, "how did you know what we were talking about while Matt and I were in here? Were you spying on us?" Alex jumped up to another ledge, and from the looks of the 'floor' he was climbing to; it looked to be the 'attic' of the temple.

Lightning just smiled as she answered. "Yes, I was following you two. I figured you might have been locals, or something." Satisfied with her answer, she climbed the final ladder and out into the same room she had been waiting in before she heard Alexander and Matthew come wandering in here.

She walked around for a bit, making sure nothing was in the room, before she lit a small fireball on her left index finger, for light. When Alex reached the top, he was understandably surprised by the fact she could cast "magic." Lightning was surprised they had the same word for it. Lightning continued to lead them through the "attic," looking for the way she got in.

The silence continued for a few minutes before Lightning tried to make conversation. "You're kind of pathetic, you know. Afraid of spiders at 20. The ones here are babies compared to what exists where I'm from." Alex frowned, but continued to let her speak. "The biggest you see are what, 15 inches? The ones I fight are around 400 pounds!" Alex shrieked out loud at the thought. It was the first time he heard Lightning laugh. He liked it, he wanted to hear it again, as it seemed it would be rare, what with her usually cold demeanor.

She continued speaking as she climbed onto the ladder that was where she remembered it. "And sorry for scaring you so much, but there wasn't a lot of room to move sometimes, the ceiling got pretty low." Alex remembered the sensation he hated, of thinking there was something hanging over you, or the little pricks that felt like hair on his shoulder and on the back of his neck. "That was YOU!" he asked, climbing the ladder after her. "So, when I thought something was touching my neck..? Or when something swished by..."

She nodded. "Yep, it was me. Or, my hair, except when I almost slipped, I let out a breath then." Alex made a mock frown. "So, you were making me think I had a massive arachnid above me, and it was just you?" He finally climbed out of the temple and was standing above the cliffs. The suns were going down now.

He looked around in the fading sunlight. From the looks of things, there really wasn't much more than an hour of sunlight left. He extended a hand to Lightning, who took it, and he pulled her up and out. She raised Blaze Edge into the sunlight, the sun made the chrome blade shimmer. About a kilometer to the west, a small blink flashed back. That must be where Matt was. Suddenly, they began to hear a strange noise; it appeared to be a "Whup" noise repeatedly. The light began to blink faster, and then it went out. Lightning looked over at Alex. "That's the distress code, we should look for cover."

Alex nodded.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Alex looked up and saw what was making the noise. A large black helicopter, with a minigun on the side of it, was heading straight for them. He motioned for Lightning to move closer to the rocks. It turned it's minigun towards them, scanning the area for any signs of life.

Lightning just stood there, wondering what this thing was, but shortly found herself knocked to the ground behind a large boulder, Alex on top of her in a rather awkward position. She tried to push him off, but he wouldn't budge. "Alex?" she hissed. "Get off of me!"

Alex shook his head violently. "Do you have any idea what that is?" he asked, panic in his voice. Lightning just laid there with a blank look on her face, so Alex sighed and slowly lifted himself off of her. "It's an attack helicopter, with a very, _very_ nasty minigun on it."

Lightning was still confused. "What's a minigun? Doesn't sound very threatening…"

"A minigun is a machine gun with six barrels, a lot of ammo, and can fire faster than you can blink once. In other words, _don't let it see you," _Alex explained, emphasizing his last words. Lightning immediately understood, but that didn't stop her from pulling out Blaze Edge and firing at it. A few of the bullets struck the glass windshield, but apparently didn't kill anybody. Almost instantly, however, the minigun on the side opened fire, hailing down bullets on the boulder.

"Try aiming at the minigun," Alex said, raising his voice to trump the fire's loud impacts. Lightning nodded, now realizing just where the minigun was. Once the fire stream halted, she peeked around the boulder, and fired some more rounds at the helicopter. One of them had apparently struck the gunner in the head, because a person's silhouette fell from the hovering death-mobile.

"Got him!" Lightning said, slightly pleased with herself. Hearing this, Alex drew _Solis Apparatus _and opened up on the chopper, aiming down the sights at the others in the bay. A few collapsed, but managed to stay within the safety of the bay, one of them pulling a door across the open space.

It turned to the right, exposing its other side; there was a minigun on this side, as well. Alex and Lightning ran around the boulder, keeping it between them and the minigun. Alex aimed Sun Gear up at it, and fired a few more times. The rounds pinged off the hull. The large gun faced him, and he jumped behind a new rock. Lightning was also taking potshots at it. Under the cover of the minigun, it began to offload Juggernauts, there were six of them. They all began spraying bullets at the duo.

Lightning brought her shield back up. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was all it took to drop the two lead Juggernauts. She dropped the shield and dropped to her knees, breathing hard. Alex pulled her behind the rock, and transformed Sun Gear back into blade form. She panted out, "I'll be back up in a second or so, just keep them busy for a minute." Alex nodded. He spun Sun Gear over his head and brought it down on the ground, creating a flurry of sparks.

The helicopter was taking off; quickly disappearing into the sunset. They were betting on the Juggernauts to finish them off… _How wrong they will be_, Alex told himself, ready for a fight. The enemies taunted him. "Hey, pansy boy, come get some of this!" One of them emptied his magazine into the air, and walked forwards, wanting to fight up close. Alex obliged, he ran straight at him, stepped off his shoulders, then brought his blade spinning back through his spine. Blood ran down Sun Gear, it dripped off, bit by bit, from the point of the long blade. The other Juggernauts were on top of him almost instantly, he kicked one off, but one put him in a half Nelson, and held him in place, one of them punched him in the gut as he tried to break out, but the suit was too heavy to move out of. One of them struck him across the face; this made blood run down from his already stinging wounds.

He grunted and kicked out, making the Juggernaut that punched him fall over. Alex kicked again, but he couldn't break free. The man he kicked was helped up by another Juggernaut, and they both began repeatedly punching and kicking him. Alex heard some rather sickening noises being made from the hits, but he was on his knees now, he couldn't stand anymore, and blood was dripping from his mouth. One of them kicked him hard in the face, and he fell back, gasping for air. The Juggernaut raised his foot to finish him, when suddenly; he fell to the ground, in half. Lightning was standing on the other side of him, Blaze Edge drawn.

The other Juggernauts were somewhat fazed, but one of them knuckled up and simply said, "If we can take down this faggot here," he pointed to Alex, "this bitch shouldn't be a problem. Hell, maybe we can have some fun with her before we finish her! Would you like that, you bit-"

That was the last thing he ever said, as his head was rolling away from his body a second later. Lightning looked down at Alex, he looked dead. Her face went perfectly blank, and then a picture of rage came across it. Alex could have sworn her hair went slightly redder. Then again, everything had a red tint, due to the blood on his face. She quickly dispatched one of the Juggernauts with a bullet to the brain, and the last one she tripped and knocked down. This was the one that was beating on Alex the most. He began to cry for mercy, and prayed to God. She took Blaze Edge and slowly held it over his head, and he begged some more for mercy. She ended his life with a slit across the throat. That was being merciful, as she wanted to do much, much worse to him.

Lightning fell to one knee, balancing on Blaze Edge; she hadn't recovered from her spell before she ran over to help Alex. She fell to her hands and knees, she was dead tired. Alex gathered the strength to attempt to stand up, he could still walk. Apparently, his new strengths allowed him to heal fast, his cuts were already beginning to scab over. He caught his breath and coughed up some more blood. He noticed Lightning was nearly unconscious from her effort. He picked her up on one arm and began to carry her to where Matt was hiding out. She stopped him after a minute or two to holster Blaze Edge, and she shifted so that he was supporting her weight, but she was still walking. Alex assumed that meant she was healing quickly, as well. _or just stubborn..._

Matt met them outside the ruins. What had looked like an enormous collection of boulders was really the outskirts of an old, ruined city, Matt had found a clearing about 300 meters in, so they made their way inwards. Lightning eventually was able to walk on her own, but they were all exhausted, it was well after dark when they made it to their camp. Matt had a fire going, and had cleared out spaces around it to sleep. Alex immediately fell asleep. This was the most singularly tiring day of his life. He could hear Lightning and Matt discussing weapons for a while, but soon they were asleep as well. He looked up at the sky, he noticed something odd, and he saw the constellation Orion! It was identical, except, where one would imagine the heart of the warrior to be, he noticed a bright, yellow, star. He thought about what it could be for a second then brushed it off.

He allowed sleep to overtake him instantly, and he was quickly unconscious. He dreamt that night, if his thoughts on Orion were correct. Or what had happened if Shepherd was here, was the rest of Earth's population here as well?

Alex's thoughts disappeared, and the night silently bided its time, paving the way for a new day.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Alex dreamed a lot that night, about a lot of things. Some obviously being where he was, how he could get home, and why he was so much...better than what he was on Earth. He thought of friends, family, if they were okay. he then recalled he had his two childhood friends, Donny and Tanya, driving down to visit him in the coming weeks. he ad least hoped to be home in time for that, if at all possible.

Alexander began to wake shortly after his dreams ended. He felt immensely groggy, but he was half expecting it. If his body was stronger, and could heal quicker, it made sense he'd be burning much more energy. Once he gained enough consciousness to think coherently, he realized something-he was immensely hungry. His stomach made a massive growl as it demanded a sacrifice to fuel its fires. Alex groaned and rolled over onto his side. He could tell just by the light on his eyelid, it was bright, really bright; it must be just after sunrise, when the world is so bright it hurts. He rolled over again and groaned. He hated waking up in morning, but he hated missing them, as well, it was his favorite time of day. He sighed and bent upwards so he was sitting, but he kept his eyelids shut; he wanted to stave off the coming light as long as possible. He fell back down after a while, for the clichéd "five more minutes" when thoughts came to his head.

Matt sat by the fire, on a log he had cut earlier in the morning. He sat, with his sword just touching the fire. He found it very odd that it didn't seem to heat from the flame. He appeared to be bored. Alex saw Matt had one arm on his knee, and from there he rested his chin on his palm. He had a twig in his mouth, using it as a toothpick. He put his gunblade in its holster then left it to sit against a rock. He was tired of carrying it around, yesterday had worn him out. Looking at Alex, Matt saw his friend roll over on the ground; he had slept silently all night. He wondered what time it was, but it really didn't matter, they still had no clue where they were. He walked around and stretched his muscles; he smirked as he got a devilish idea. He took a few breaths of air, and then prepared for his strike, grinning as he snuck up on Alex. He leaned over him, and took a deep breath; he then began to yell, directly into his friend's ear:

"Good morning Jacksonville! It's a warm, beautiful, sunny morning! So! Why don't you get off your sleeping ass and DO SOMETHING!" Alex immediately jumped up. That had done the job of waking him up, sure enough. He looked around, rubbing his eyes, then gave Matt a mock frown of anger, and he got up and began to stretch. It was morning and fairly early, it couldn't have been past 8:30 AM.

He remembered then that he had brought his camera and iPhone with him. Reaching into his pocket, he made sure it was in one piece. Luckily, it in fact was. Pulling it out of his pockets, he unplugged his tangled and jumbled headphones, putting them in one of his hoodie's pockets. He hit the power switch, and the device came to life. He quickly put in his passcode on the touch screen, and it greeted him. Matt looked over Alex's shoulder at the screen. He laughed a bit inside at the anime background on his friend's media player/cell phone.

Alex checked the time and daylight settings. Oddly enough, they were perfectly set with the sun position here. It had automatically changed. The time read 8:00 AM. It was around 21 Celsius, according to his iPhone. He checked the location, he and Matt gasped as the map showed, instead of a GPS location on earth, an entirely new planet. He read the field of the name, it said:

PLAINS OF EIDOR, TIEDEN.

"Well," Alex said, "we know where we are now." He zoomed the map out; he got an entire globe of "Tieden" now. He now had a complete map of the planet, if that's what this was. He looked over the map. He could clearly see the temple they had awoken near yesterday. It was northwest of them, and the top door was about a 2 mile walk from their outcropping. He then noticed a small icon over the rocky area they were inside. It read the name of a city.

ERUS

_More Latin?_ Alex thought as he handed Matthew his iPhone. It was odd; almost everything they had encountered had been in Latin. Perhaps whatever sent them here wanted to use a root language to communicate? Matt had stopped looking at the map and was attempting to break into the pass code-locked images on Alex's iPhone now. Alex quickly stood and snatched it from his friend before he could try the code again. Matt punched his arm and Alex returned with another jab. Matt stood up and put up mock boxing gloves, swooping under Alex's jabs. Suddenly, he slipped and fell and on he thought was a rock. He looked at what he tripped over.

A skeleton lay by his feet. Matt scrambled away as he saw the remains. They were Human bones. He called out to Alex. "Um…dude…why the hell are there bones over here!" Alex looked over to him, a shocked look on his face. He ran over to where Matt's gunblade was, and picked it up to carry to his friend. Matt got up and dusted himself off. He took his blade and reattached the sheath to his back.

"Well…" Matt said, "That explains why this place is a bunch of ruins. Odd that I didn't notice it when we came here last night, though." He looked around, and he saw why they didn't notice. What they thought were boulders at night, were massive stone pillars that were crushed, smashed or otherwise destroyed beyond recognition, unless you looked at it for a while.

Alex looked at the architecture, being careful to avoid skeletons while wandering away from the camp, Matt following. It looked, oddly enough, more like building one would expect to see in the museums of earth. This was extremely odd, considering there was a massive Mayan-style pyramid built into a massive hill not three miles away. He then realized they were missing someone. He turned to Matt. "I just remembered, where is exactly is that "Lightning" chick? Did she ditch us?"

Matt shrugged. "I don't know, she must have taken off before I woke up."

Alex sighed. _Great, the one "friendly" person we meet ditches us. _They continued through the expanse of ruins. Some buildings were more intact than others, he was looking for clues as to what happened at "Erus." How long ago did it get destroyed? Who-or what- did it?

Continuing through the ruins, they felt as if they were going in circles, because of all the similarly destroyed buildings in once place. Matt thought aloud, "God damn, how many people do you think lived here?" Alex thought on it as he sat down on a knocked over log. Matt sat across from him on a hunk of brick. "Don't know," Alex replied, "maybe... a few hundred thousand? It's hard to tell."

Matt slowly nodded in agreement. He was thinking on what they should do next. Alex leaned back and looked around him, by the looks of it; they were near the center of a market. Off about two miles he could see the top of what looked to be a courtyard ahead. He pointed to it, and he and Matt were quickly up and on their way.

Lightning sat, legs and arms crossed, eyes closed, on top of a destroyed tower. She was thinking. Mostly on what could have brought her here, and how to move on from this point onward. _If someone brought me here, they can send me back, right?_ She thought to herself. She had been poking around the ruins for the last hour, as Alexander and Matthew were sleeping still. Deciding she better return to their makeshift camp, she quickly leaped off the half destroyed tower, and began walking back towards the direction of the camp, one hand resting on Blaze Edge's handle. She had seen the bones, and knew something had to have destroyed the city, it couldn't have just fallen over.

She easily leapt over a broken wall, and climbed to one of the boulders that encircled their campsite. She paused; she heard the faint scratch of metal on rock. She looked around cautiously, and then slid down the rock back into the camp. The fire Matt had made the night before was nothing but embers now. She stepped into the camp and looked for either of them, but didn't see anyone. She noticed a few feet away was a skeleton that appeared to have been kicked. _I guess one of them had kicked it over, _she decided.

Walking over to the other end of the camp, she froze as she heard the sound of metal on rock again, as if a machine were approaching. She grabbed Blaze Edge's handle now, ready to fight if need be. She backed away from the entrance to the camp and made her way back to the center. She scanned the area, looking one last time for Matt or Alex, but she couldn't find either of them. _Wonderful, the two people I meet who aren't attempting to kill me. Assholes._

She sighed and sat down on one of the rocky "chairs" that were scattered about. She was attempting to hear what exactly was making the noises. She heard the noises get louder and more frequent, then cut out for a few seconds. She leapt to her feet as she heard what sounded almost like a robot or machine roaring. She looked around quickly, and bent her knees in a fighting stance, she would be ready. Placing her right hand on Blaze Edge's handle she grabbed onto it and pulled slightly, so she could draw it faster than usual.

She didn't so much as see it coming than she heard it. She instinctively drew Blaze Edge and changed it into sword form as she turned and sidestepped, blade raised. She deflected a blow and ducked under another swing, she took a kick at her attacker's chest, and they were pushed back a few feet. She then got a good look at her attacker.

A man stood there, longsword grasped in both hands. She looked him over quickly. He didn't look much older than she did, but his face was covered in scars, and he had odd, blue scars that covered his bald head, which stood out alongside his dark blue eyes. He wore a suit of heavy armor, which was black, gold, and silver in color. He looked around 6"5 in height. He quickly looked up at her and lunged again, they locked blades and pushed each other back. Lightning rolled behind him and stabbed, but he caught Blaze Edge with one of his gauntlets and pushed it to the side. He raised his blade and brought it down, she barely managed to duck to the left when he swung the back of his arm at her, she rolled backwards and stood, sword pointing directly at him. They each watched each others next move, and Lightning decided to attempt to use her speed to win the fight.

She ran as fast as she could forwards, thrusting Blaze Edge at his gut, but he sidestepped and leapt easily six feet back and deflected a flurry of fast blows by her. He brought his sword into the ground, and a wave of blue energy propelled both of them high into the air. Lightning twisted and punched the warrior in the face, his head quickly snapped back, and he kneed her in the gut, and threw her back towards the ground.

She slid backwards for a few feet, and then ran at him again. Once more they dueled with their swords; but Lightning was not as strong as him, the fact he had body armor gave him a large advantage also. He pushed back at her, but she stepped backwards quickly then leapt over his reach. She stepped off his shoulders then did a backflip, in midair she swapped Blaze Edge back to gun mode. As she landed she quickly turned and aimed at her attacker.

He rolled backwards and quickly stood. He swapped the hand he was holding his sword in, and then pulled out a pistol from his hip holster. They stood, motionless, aiming at each other. It was a stalemate, the exact type of fight Lightning hated. She took the chance to look him over again. He had an authorative, almost royal look to him; he was confident, if not arrogant. They met eyes; they were both thinking what to do next. They began to circle one another, like a hunter stalking its prey. Of course, in this situation it was two hunters fighting to see who the better fighter was.

Lightning wished Alex and Matt were back here, she knew she couldn't beat this guy without their help. He was born to fight, it seemed. She wondered where he may have come from to be this skilled. It wouldn't be long before she ran out of energy, then she was in a real bind. She focused again and held her arm straighter. She was a good shot, thankfully, more so with a gunblade than a rifle.

The stalemate broke when he shifted his left leg slightly, Lightning fired her weapon at him, and he fired at the same time. As her explosive round impacted whatever his handgun shot, the concussive force of the blast sent them both flying back into the rocks. She gasped for air as her back collided with a boulder, but she quickly stood again, Blaze Edge in blade form ready. She attempted to see through the dust that had been kicked up when the explosion happened, but she could not. Going by instinct, she ran into the dust cloud and swung. Her calculations were right, her blade locked with the man's, and they both stood, attempting to overpower the other.

When the dust cleared, they still stood, pushing at the other, Lightning was gritting her teeth in effort, the man just had a focused look on his face. Then he spoke; his voice was noble-like, but he had a slight hint of long-held frustration in his tone. "Wait," he said, slowly shifting his stance."'Why are we fighting? As far as my knowledge goes, we are not enemies, and it's against my nature to harm a woman."

Lightning quickly stepped back and relaxed, but she still held Blaze Edge in her right hand. _You can't be serious._

He lowered his weapon and spoke again. Lightning noticed he spoke like he was from centuries ago, by his wording. "I apologize for attacking you, I was expecting reinforcement from the monster I had slain, and I assumed you were one of them, but it appears, you are not." He slowly slid his blade onto the handle attached to the back of his armor. "My name is Baldur, son of Odin the allfather, and one of the Aesir."

Lightning holstered Blaze Edge in it's sheathing, behind her back, and then replied. "Most people call me Lightning, my parents I'd rather not talk about, and I'm not in any special organizations. Unless you count a defector." She was attempting stop herself from using slang, but it was difficult at short notice.

Baldur then spoke, "Again, I apologize for my assault, but one cannot be too careful in this strange realm, what with the giant lizards, monsters, traitorous humans, and _machines." _He spoke the last word with such malice it surprised Lightning, he obviously had something against tech.

"I'm sorry..." Lightning responded, "…you said Human like you are not one? What exactly are you?"

Baldur thought for a moment on how to explain it, then answered. "The Aesir are a group of Humanities protectors, where I come from. To most, though, we are known as gods." Lightning raised an eyebrow. If he was a "God", it explained how she was just barely able to compete with him, even at her peak.

Baldur reached for the mic located in his ear, the soldier in charge of his battalion was trying to reach him. They had dispatched another group of the robotic enemies from their own world. _Good, _he thought, _the Wolves are not dying in as great of numbers as I imagined._ He replied to the First Wolves' request. "First Wolf, bring your squad to my location immediately, there is a possible new mission for some of you." The First Wolf acknowledged and cut out.

Lightning decided to take the opportunity to ask some questions. "You didn't happen so see two men about my age, have you? Both have brown hair, about my height, a bit taller?"

Baldur thought a moment then answered. "I apologize, I have not, but I shall keep a lookout for them. My men and I will be in these ruins for some time, we may run across them." Lightning nodded in agreement. "That sounds fair. Well, it was nice meeting you, um, Lord Baldur. But I really need to find those two quick if there are monsters...About. They are not exactly the best fighters." She was already beginning the hate having to speak more "classically."

She went to walk away when Baldur spoke again. "Wait, I could not, in good conscience , let a lady go into the ruins alone, as skilled as you are, or otherwise. I can send a few of my men with you, until you find who you are looking for." She thought about it for a while, it was a good offer, she could use some help, but how useful would they be? If they couldn't keep up with her, they would be crippling her.

While she was about to answer, she heard men talking to another, she turned to Baldur and saw six men in armor step out from a wall behind him. They wore pretty regular combat gear, but their helmets covered their faces. The one with white armor and a pauldron on one of his shoulders addressed the Aesir. "My lord, I apologize, sorry we were slowed down, we ran into some Dark elves on the way bac-"

Baldur raised a hand and interrupted him. "It matters not; we carry on nonetheless." He motioned towards Lightning. She turned fully and looked over the soldiers. They all looked up and snapped to attention when they saw her. They were staring, she smirked inwards. She made eye contact with one of them, his faceplate slid down as his mouth hung open. She smiled, taunting him. He snapped back into focus and his faceplate snapped back up. One of the other soldiers punched him in the arm, they began talking amongst themselves. No doubt, about her.

_Well,_ she said to herself, _I guess they don't see women enough._ She couldn't help but want to laugh out loud at the group of men eying her up; instead she gave Baldur a stern look. He turned to his soldiers. "Men!" he said in astern but not overly loud voice, "Please leave your idle chat, and her, be. We are still on a mission for Odin, him knowing our location or not."

They all snapped to. "Yes, lord Baldur!" they shouted in unison.

"Now," he said as he spoke to Lightning, "Will you have some of my men accompany you?" One of the soldiers snickered behind his back. "They are…childish at times, but trustworthy."

Lightning sighed as she came to a decision. "Thanks for the offer, but no thanks." She crossed her arms. "I have enough to focus on without a bunch of _children_ undressing me with their eyes every chance they get. And yes, I know where you're looking!" her best impression of rage in her voice. She shot a look over at the Back Wolf, who had his faceplate up still. He quickly looked away and began to whistle nervously. The others laughed. _I have to admit, it's fun to mess with them._

Baldur spoke, "Understandable. But worry not, if you run into trouble, I'm sure a squad will be near enough to assist." Lightning thanked him for the gesture then was off and away. She could practically feel the soldier's eyes boring into her back, but she sighed and quickly leaped over a wall to break line of sight.

She scaled a wall that was around ten feet high and began to jog along it, looking for a way higher. She noticed a wrecked tower with a bunch of wooden debris hanging off. She sprinted for a few seconds then leapt onto it, and quickly reached the top. Lightning sat on the pointed roof and looked around, she got her first good look at Erus then. It had an architecture that was foreign to her, but it was a large city. She looked around in a complete circle, there weren't many tall buildings. It appeared the tower she was on top of was one of the highest buildings. She then noticed, on the horizon, a large building that looked like a religious temple. Deciding on her course, she jumped straight off the tower, but snapped her fingers midway through the fall,the gravity device still worked, and she landed somewhat hard, the purple glow around her dissipating as she went along her way. Lightning drew Blaze Edge and kept it at the ready. If Baldur and those soldiers were right, it would only be a matter of time until something found her…or she found it.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

Alexander paused again; he heard a faint yell in the distance. Not quite human, but it didn't exactly sound like an animal, either. He looked over at Matthew, he nodded, and they went onwards, Alex keeping a hand on Sun-Gear's pommel of sorts. He had opted to move Sun- Gear off of his back and instead to lower back, going from his right side to his left, diagonally. Matt was now wearing his blade horizontally across his back, handle on the left side; as one would hold a hunting knife, or something in that vein.

Matt began a slow jog ahead of Alex, and leapt onto a high wall. Alex followed his lead, and as he rose to his feet, they realized they were in a courtyard. They also got a better view of the architecture. What Alex had thought to have been middle age's architecture turned out to be more along the lines of ancient Greek design, with all of the pillars, and the heavy use of rocks and walkways.

They heard it again, this time they paused and listened. They couldn't see anything yet, but something was in these ruins. Matt reached down with his left hand and lightly grasped his sword's handle, just to be safe. They slowly scanned the area in a 360 degree fashion. They didn't see anything important, just more rubble and bones.

Then, Alex's ears picked up a slight tapping noise, almost like…rapid footsteps. He nudged Matt, and Matt nodded. "I hear it too," he said. The "footsteps" were increasing in volume, accompanied by some more screams. Then, for a split second, there was an orange flash that seemed to zoom by the two.

Alex just looked at Matt in shock, his jaw hanging open. "Was that a…rabbit?" he asked, an eyebrow arching. Matt just shrugged. "Probably, but I've never seen an orange rabbit before…" he suggested, turning back towards the way they were heading. Then, a new sound arose. It was like several metal pieces clanking together all at once.

Black, animalistic figures appeared before them, crawling out from the shadows, a strange glow emanating from their heads. Once they came into the light, a chill went through the two's spines. They were wolf-like animals, with reptilian skin. They adorned metallic armor, and the source of the glow was a large golden crystal, which resided on each of their foreheads. They snarled at Matt and Alex, their razor sharp teeth bared.

Matt moved his left hand to his sword, pulled it from its sheath, and tossed it to his right hand. He caught it, and twirled it around, blade pointed backwards. Alex also drew his sword, readying his stance for combat. But the humans were not the first to strike. One of the animals leapt forward, and almost ran straight into Alex. He deftly sidestepped, swinging his blade at the beast's leg. The sword just _clanged_ off of a metal plate though, much to Alex's annoyance.

Matt was busy dueling with the remaining two of the animals himself, fending off each attack with a parry from his sword. The other beast had managed to flank Alexander, however, and leapt on top of him, trying to tear his blade from his hand.

Alex raised his arms to cover his face, and blocked a bite from the creature with the broad edge of his sword. He rolled to the left, and then stood, swinging his blade at its right flank. His sword clanked off again, he gritted his teeth in frustration. He quickly glanced to Matthew, who had ducked under a tackle from a beast, and stabbed it through its underbelly, impaling it. He withdrew his blade and began to circle the second.

Alex followed his lead, and waited for his chance to strike, the beast bared its teeth, growled, and lunged, but he sidestepped and stabbed on the opening in its armor-like hide. It had worked, it yelped in pain and fell quickly to the ground. Alex removed Sun-Gear from the beast and turned to help Matt with the last one.

The beast growled and began to back up, a sneer on its face. Matt began to close in to finish it, when it quickly yelped and leapt over a wall behind it. Matt turned to Alex and raised an eyebrow. "Do we…follow it? What was it, a metal dog?" Alex nodded and slid Sun-Gear into its holster, they both quickly scaled the wall and hopped over, and they were in a similar area as they were before.

They realized that they were nearing the center of the city, and they were moving up on raised parts of the city. Not far ahead was the temple they had seen from their old camp. They quickly decided to give up on the "Hard-Wolf" and continue towards the central structure. They both drew their swords and were on their way again.


End file.
